Greece’s anti-austerity SYRIZA party is leading in opinion polls days ahead of a general election on Sunday. The country’s massive €317 billion debt remains a key point of disaccord among experts and politicians.

Recent polls show SYRIZA is leading among voters and is three
percent ahead of the ruling New Democracy party, according to a
survey published in the To Vima newspaper on Sunday.

Should the leftist Coalition of the Radical Left Alliance
(SYRIZA) win the election on January 25, it will abandon
austerity measures in favor of its own program to repay the
national debt, said the party’s leader Alexis Tsipras in an
interview with local Antenna TV channel.

#Syriza
consolidating lead in polls. Widespread feeling here: it can't
get any worse, why not try something new. Ready to gamble,
#Greece?

His party also opposes EU sanctions against Russia saying they
pose a threat to peace and stability throughout Europe.

The Greek government was forced to impose strict fiscal austerity
measures in exchange for €317 billion in financial assistance
from the troika of creditors of the ECB, IMF and the EU. Most of
the funds were used to bailout Greek banks and only around 10
percent of that has reached the people.

As a result of a continuous crisis, child poverty in Greece has
almost doubled since 2008, according to a UN report. The rate of
youth unemployment has risen above 50 percent. Mental health
organizations say the suicide rate in the country has soared by
45 percent.

If SYRIZA doesn’t receive a majority of votes in parliament
enough to form its own government, it will need to form a
coalition with some smaller party that would accept the course of
SYRIZA.

Germany and several other EU countries are cautiously negotiating
a possible scenario in which Greece may leave the eurozone. They
believe the EU can handle a Greece exit from the single currency
as other member countries have implemented the necessary reforms
since the crisis in Greece first erupted.

Alexis Tsipras, in turn, said that Greeks "should not be
concerned about the fate of the euro, but be interested in saving
the national economy and preventing a social disaster."

The SYRIZA leader also said the country will fulfill its
obligations towards the European Union. "We respect our
institutional commitments within the European Union,” he
added.

Forgive and forget?

One of the biggest economic implications of four years of
austerity in Greece is the future of the country’s massive
€317billion debt which has become a hot topic for policymakers
and experts.

Christine Lagarde, a head of the IMF warned on Monday that
changing the debt conditions would raise a query about Greece’s
international credibility.

“A debt is a debt and it is a contract,” she told The
Irish Times in an interview. “Defaulting, restructuring,
changing the terms has consequences on the signature and the
confidence in the signature.”

Greece’s debt isn’t payable and that has to be acknowledged by
the creditors, Ann Pettifor, director of Policy Research in
Macroeconomics, told RT. She believes the EU imposing the
austerity policy has contributed to crushing demand and the
contraction of economic activity in Greece, which contributed to
a rising unemployment rate and a deterioration in living
standards.

“This is causing a downward spiral in Greece’s recovery”
said Pettifor. “It’s irrationality of, on the one hand,
demanding debt repayment, and on the other hand, crippling the
debtor. So I think SYRIZA will do a rational thing.”

Tsipras said should SYRIZA win it will want to convene an
international conference to renegotiate the terms of Greece’s
debt, similar to a summit of 1953 in which the debt of West
Germany was cut by 50 percent.

Preparing for political
wake

SYRIZA’s opposition to austerity and talks about its possible
exit from the eurozone has been heating up political uncertainty.
Greek banks have raised concerns over tightening liquidity
conditions, as the banking system lost around €3 billion ($3.47
billion) in deposits in the past two months.

Two of the country’s biggest lenders, Eurobank Ergasias and Alpha
Bank, said Friday they had formally requested access to an
emergency cash facility from the country’s central bank.

The moves are considered precautionary, as none of the lenders is
facing an immediate cash crunch, people familiar with the matter
told the Wall Street Journal.

However, such precautionary measures will cost as the interest
rate from The Bank of Greece is 1.55 percent compared with 0.05
percent from the European Central Bank.

Greek stocks on December 29 plunged to an 11-year low on the news of the
snap elections after parliament failed to elect a president in a key vote.

The negotiations between Greece and the troika about a credit
line for the latest €240 billion bailout were suspended and their
progress will depend on the result of the election.

Last week, due to political uncertainty, Fitch revised its
outlook on long-term debt rating for Greece to negative.